Nerd Nite Philly

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Hey Nerds!

Nerd Nite Presents
“The Streets of Philadelphia!”

This Thursday, February 10th at the Field House, upstairs.  Doors at 7:30, the show starts at 8:00.   Come learn some new stories about the City of Brotherly Love.  We’ve got history, trees and a mystery!  The $5 cover gets you cheap drinks and two hours of excellent nerdosity.

Speakers:

“A photographic tour of Gray’s Ferry and its environs: 1700 – 1950” by Josh Nims, Operations Manager, Schuylkill River Development Corporation

A short review of the changes wrought on the Gray’s Ferry segment of the tidal Schuylkill River by the cruellest and filthiest beasts of Industry: railroads, road builders, paint factories, and animal slaughterhouses. Find yourself aghast at the serenity and verdure of 18th Century Gray’s Ferry trounced immeasurably by the pollution of greed. A relatively happy ending will also be provided.

Bio:  Hailing from the Deep South, Josh moved to Philadelphia in 1997 to attend Temple Law School.  He is now the Operations Manager for Schuylkill River Development Corporation, a public-private partnership that is implementing economic, recreational, environmental and cultural improvements on the lower (tidal) Schuylkill River between the Fairmount Dam and the Delaware River.  Josh manages the maintenance, volunteer, and individual giving programs for the trail and greenway along the tidal Schuylkill.  His job is a daily mix of city and community politics, science and architecture, basic custodial services, people management, and historical analysis.  Josh is also the founder and board chair of Franklin’s Paine Skatepark Fund, Inc., which is developing the Paine’s Park project on Schuylkill Banks near the Philadelphia Museum of Art and is creating smaller facilities across the City pursuant to a Master Plan for Philadelphia Skateboarding.  Josh is married to fellow nerd, Noelle Dames, who currently manages a low-income CSA program (LIFE) and the Kensington Community Kitchen for Greensgrow Farm.  They have an awesome daughter, Juniper, and reside in NW Philadelphia.

“The Urban Tree Canopy Assessment: Philadelphia Parks and Recreation is so much cooler than you thought” by Sarah Low, Division of Urban Forestry and Ecosystem Management

The City of Philadelphia has taken on an ambitious goal to increase the tree canopy to 30% city wide by 2025. In order to reach that goal, we need to plant 200,000 to 300,000 trees in the next five years. But where? Using remote sensing technology and some fancy modeling, we have been able to figure out where in the city are the best opportunities and the greatest need, so that we can prioritize our efforts.

Bio:  Sarah Low holds both Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation, with an emphasis on Watershed Science and Management, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As the Director of Spatial Analysis and Conservation Planning for the Urban Forest and Ecosystem Management Division of the Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, she facilitates ecosystem planning. These days Sarah is developing an Urban Forest and Ecosystem Management Plan and helping determine through the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) how to best prioritize tree plantings to meet a goal of 300,000 trees planted by 2015.

“Asphalt mosaic tiles of the Toynbee variety and beyond – what they are, and how to make your own” by Justin Duerr, Toynbee Tile Expert

“Toynbee tiles” have been spotted in Philadephia, the eastern seaboard of the US, and several locations in South America since the 1980’s. They are linoleum tile mosaics which are embedded into the asphalt in pedestrian crosswalks. For decades, hundreds of them have cropped up mysteriously, almost all of them bearing the cryptic message “Toynbee Idea/In Kubrick’s ‘2001/Resurrect Dead/On Planet Jupiter.” Despite being investigated in depth and receiving a fair amount of coverage in print media and on the internet, their origin and meaning have remained a mystery. Recently, the medium and technique of making these asphalt mosaics has caught on among street artists, and rashes of new tiles with wildly varying design and messages have begun appearing. Regardless of the identity and motivations of the originator of this street-art technique, it is undeniably an ingenious creative innovation which is only now beginning to spread widely. This talk will focus on both the history of these tiles, the future of the art-form, and will touch briefly on how you can make one of your own. As the original tiles often implored, YOU MUST MAKE AND GLUE TILES!!! YOU!!!

Bio:  Justin Duerr is a Toynbee tile scientist and researcher who has studied the Toynbee tile humanities and sciences since 1994. He is also a visual artist and musician, who has created hundreds of pictures and been part of dozens of musical ensembles, many of which have received small amounts of acclaim in isolated pockets of nearly-unknown subcultural niches. Justin was recently featured as lead Toynbee tile scientist in the award-winning feature documentary film “Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles.”

Featuring: Tragi-comic songs by Charles Latham and comedic storytelling by Will Dean.

February 10, 2011
The Field House
Doors at 7:30, the fun starts at 8
$5 cover gets you food and drink specials

see you there!

Hey Nerds of Philadelphia!

The next Nerd Nite is drawing near.  This time, we’ll hear about the first computer (Philly’s own ENIAC), how animal bones can teach us about ancient humans, and time travel.  For entertainment in between talks: comedy and juggling!

Set the time and space coordinates on your TARDIS for January 13, 2011 (doors at 7:30, show at 8:00) at The Field House at 1150 Filbert Street.  Note that we’ll be *upstairs* this time and removed from the football noise.  The $5 cover gets you cheap drinks and over an hour of excellent nerdosity.

Speakers:

“The ENIAC: The first modern computer, the men who invented it, and the women who (re)invented programming” by Mitch Marcus, Univ. of Pennsylvania

The ENIAC, first demonstrated publically at Penn on Valentine’s Day, 1946, was the world’s first general purpose electronic computer.  With 100,000 parts individually soldered together, it was 100 times more complex than any previous electronic device, and believed to be impossible by the best experts of the day.  How did the machine work? Who were the visionaries who thought such a machine was possible, and how did they actually get it to work?  Who were the original programmers,  why were they all women, and did they really invent programming?

Bio:  Mitch Marcus is a professor at Penn, where his day job is figuring out how to get computers to automatically misunderstand human language half as well as people do.  In his spare time, he studies programming manuals for long-gone 30 ton computers, just in case he finds one at a yard sale.

“From the table to the grave: using animal bones to uncover past human behavior” by Kristen Gardella, Univ. of Pennsylvania

Zooarchaeology is the study of animal bones recovered from archaeological sites. Archaeologists use animal bones to help them understand not only the life history of animals, but also complex human behaviors such as foodways, ritual practices, herding strategies and long-distance trade. Highlighting several sites from Latin America, this talk will address how faunal data is gathered from archaeological sites and how it is interpreted to understand human and animal interactions in the past.

Bio:  Kristen Gardella is a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in Zooarchaeology of the Andes.  She has a BA from Bucknell University and a MA from the University of Chicago and has spent more than 16 years working on archaeological sites throughout North, Central and South America.  She teaches in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Ursinus College and is the project zooarchaeologist for a multidisciplinary investigation studying climate change and early hunter-gatherer societies in the high Andes.

“How (not) to build a time machine” by Dave Goldberg, Drexel Univ. and Jeff Blomquist, Boeing and Widener Univ.

We’ll give a hands-on guide for the practical time-traveler, from basic design specs to how to avoid paradoxes.  Most importantly, we’ll discuss whether you should attempt (or if it’s even possible) to kill your grandfather when you encounter him in the past, and how to explain yourself when you see him again next Thanksgiving.

Bio:  Dave Goldberg and Jeff Blomquist are the authors of “A User’s Guide to the Universe: Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantum Uncertainty.”  Dave is an associate professor of physics at Drexel University, where he works on theoretical and observational cosmology.  He has contributed to Slate, the LA Times, and has appeared on WNYC’s Studio 360. He also writes the “Ask a Physicist” column for io9.com.  Jeff Blomquist is an engineer at Boeing Aerospace and adjunct professor of Astronomy at Widener.  He drew the illustrations in “A User’s Guide” all by himself! He lives in Philadelphia and has only recently stopped sleeping on a couch.

Featuring entertainment: Comedic storytelling by Zach Webber and Juggling by Bill Peirce

See you there!

Flyer by Jon Oliver.

Philly’s nerds are willing to make the sacrifice of drinking beer while learning.

http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/health-science/item/9013-nerds-unite-over-books-and-beer

is January 13th, 2011 at the Field House.  Watch this space for more details.

Thanks to everyone who came out to our first Nerd Nite!  We had a great time, and we hope you did too!

The Philly Nerd Nite team.

nerd nite philadelphia #1

Thursday, December 9th,  7:30PM (doors), 8:00PM (show)

The Field House, 1150 Filbert Street  (at 12th St, one block north of Market)

$5 cover gets you cheap drinks and 60 minutes of pure nerdom.

The inaugural Nerd Nite Philadelphia will feature a smorgasbord of science and culture. We’ll hear about searching for life on Mars, the development of regional languages and psychedelics in America. In addition to nerdy lectures, we’ll feature local musical and comedy talent and stupid nerd tricks. If you pay attention, you could leave Nerd Nite an expert on three new topics and a have a few new jokes in your arsenal!

Alexandra Davatzes, Temple University

Robotic field work and the search for life on Mars: who (or what) else is out there?!?!

Meteorite impacts to the Earth were larger and more frequent early in its history, just when the first life forms on Earth were evolving. What effects did these impacts have? More importantly, what do they tell us about extra-terrestrial life, and will we find it on Mars?

Bio:
Alix Davatzes is a planetary geologist at Temple University where she looks at pretty pictures of Mars and contemplates the effects of a meteorite hitting the Earth with 7 orders of magnitude more energy than the Hiroshima or Nagasaki bombs. Then she goes home and deals with two children that have 10 orders of magnitude more energy than the bombs.

Reese Heitner, Drexel University

Lingua Francas, Pidgins, and Creoles: What’s the Deal?

Linguistic diversity, like bio-diversity, comes in many flavors. Languages can be historically arranged via common ancestry (e.g., Latin-based Romance languages), but equally, languages can also be typologically arranged via common structures (e.g., SVO languages like English and Mandarin). But some languages have their distinctive taste in virtue of their unique sociolinguistic role and origin. The similarities and differences among lingua francas, pidgins, and creoles are sampled and compared.

Bio:
With converging interests in language, learning, and cognitive psychology, Prof. Heitner teaches the undergraduate linguistics courses in the Drexel Department of Culture and Communication as well as graduate TESL courses for the Drexel School of Education. Prof. Heitner also teaches a number of advanced ESL courses at the English Language Center at Drexel University.

Matt Young, University of Pennsylvania

Tripping From Myth to Medicine: Rediscovering Psychedelics in America

For some seven-thousand years human beings have been entangled in a peculiar relationship with psychedelic plants. We’ve worshiped and demonized them, used them to heal and to harm, and, under their tutelage, been shown within ourselves great beauty and darkness. Now, after fifty years in exile, the psychedelic plants are being revisited in the Western world as useful in the treatment of psychiatric ailments. As we once again test the waters of a relationship with these plants, let us look at that relationship in the past, present, and future; to the mysteries we’ve unraveled about that relationship, and to those that remain delightfully cloistered.

Bio:
I am a doctoral candidate in neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania. At this time, my research interests lie in understanding how the brain uses emotion to signal the significance of learned information so that it may be more vividly recalled in the future. I grew up in Arizona where a wide array of influences — raised in a Jewish home by a Navajo father, graduated from a Catholic high school, a student of psychology and Eastern traditions at Arizona State University — that shaped my fascinations and worldview. It is my hope that science and humanism can meet somewhere in our conscious space for the betterment of this planet.

Featuring:
Comedic storytelling by Malwina Andruczyk.
Malwina is an immigrant from Poland. She has seen Barbara Streisand’s “Funny Girl” and can really relate.

And a little music with Brett Cohen.

Brett is a fingerstyle guitarist and singer.

Graphic design by Jon Oliver.